This strut bar of this disclosure relates to an improvement in strut bars, and more particularly to strut bars for trucks with low-seated shock towers and low-seated strut towers.
One of the most common upgrades on a modified car is mounting strut bars. A strut bar (also known as strut tower bar or strut brace) is designed to tie the two opposing strut towers together as a single solid unit. The purpose of a strut bar is to reduce flex these strut towers experience during hard cornering. When taking a turn a car's strut towers normally flex, resulting in body-flex and loss of traction. Consequently, strut bars are designed to keep strut towers from flexing, in that the strut bars take the pressure being applied to one strut tower when taking a turn and distributing that pressure to both strut towers.
This is so because a strut bar is constructed to tie the two strut towers of a car together so that they share the load applied at the outer strut tower. This accords twice as much material [i.e., strut towers] when a strut tower encounters the same cornering forces and helps reduce fatigue stress in this area by “sharing” the forces. This tying [connecting] together of two opposing strut towers reduces a vehicle's chassis flex and body flex. And, as so connected, as a single solid unit, it provides for added stiffness and transmits the load of each strut tower during cornering via tension and compression of the strut bar which shares the load between both strut towers and thereby reduces chassis flex.
Because the tops of such strut towers on cars sit high in the engine compartment, a typical strut bar is a basically linear piece attached to the tops of the struts tying the two together.
In trucks, such cannot be done because the shock and strut towers sit deep and well below the lateral plane of the engine. Consequently, no strut bars are available in the industry of which the applicant is aware. Trucks have shocks inside shock housings having a cap covering and holding this shock therein. The strut bar of this disclosure has a horizontal cross member with a downward extending member on each end of the cross member. At the end of each downward extending member is a mounting member adapted to mount on the housing cap of a truck's shock tower.
Each downward extending member is of a sufficient length to permit the mounting members to affix to the shock tower housing caps. In this regard, the strut bar of this disclosure is easy to install and vastly improves truck road manners, suspension, and its handling characteristics.
The mounting members are fitted to work with the factory suspension components of all types of trucks to thereby fit directly the shock tower of the truck and onto the exposed stud on top of the shock tower whose housing is generally welded to the chassis of the truck. All truck shocks are housed in this type of shock tower with a cap at the upper end of the shock tower. The cap fits over several exposed studs on the upper housing of the shock tower and aids to hold the shock under it in place. The cap is held in place by nuts tightened over the exposed studs.
Mounting the strut bar of this disclosure requires merely removing the nuts from the studs using a conventional tool [crescent wrench, box wrench, open-end wrench, socket wrench, and the like], placing the mounting member onto the studs, and replacing the nuts onto the studs and tightening them thereat. This will securely hold the strut bar of this disclosure.
The improved features of the strut bar of this disclosure include:
a. Directly bolts onto an existing shock tower without modification or special tool requirements.
b. When driving on off-road conditions, allows the existing shock to operate properly.
c. Virtually eliminates body flex and chassis flex.
d. Provides the driver with more linear control and situational control of the truck.
e. Stabilizes cornering; particularly, heavy cornering.
f. Increases structural rigidity of the chassis.
g. Improves overall handling.
h. Creates a more positive steering response.
It is the single or multi-bar [cross member] structure combined with the integrated support brace therebetween, and to some extent the top plate, which greatly improves handling, driveability, and control when properly mounted to shock towers of trucks. The spaces defined at various connection points [pivot space and plate space] allow for some flexibility of the overall strut bar combination.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the strut bar of this disclosure. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the strut bar of this disclosure. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed strut bar of this disclosure in a different manner or by modifying the strut bar of this disclosure within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the strut bar of this disclosure may be had by referring to the summary of the strut bar of this disclosure and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the strut bar of this disclosure defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.